Raph came back just when Don and Mikey finished their meditating. It didn't take a genius to figure out what just happened to their hothead brother. Don gently guided Raph to sit down next to Mikey. Ue had ordered the healer to follow them, so he could be of use anytime. Raph hissed when the wounded on his chest healed:

- Ow! Yer really lucky Donnie. That girl ain't any pushover. She nailed me.

- I can guess that much – Don sat down next to him – What she showed in the ring is definitely not what's she capable of. But why did she have to hold back?

- Beat me – Raph rubbed over his chest – How's Leo doing?

- Until now, still nothing. He and Usagi are on par with each other. Now we just have to wait and see who's gonna collapse first.

In the ring, the samurai and the ninja were puffing out breath. Sweat poured out from the rabbit's fur, soaking his cloth. Leo wasn't any better. Naked as he was, he still found the heat they've been working on unbearable. But neither of them refused to give up. For every blow Leo dished out, Usagi responded with another with equal force. One thing was different though, as Usagi danced around the turtle, his moves were executed with elegance and grace. His katana cornered Leo to the edge. The samurai coiled his body:

- My next attack shall be my final blow, Leonardo-san. Unless you want to be eliminated from the tournament, I suggest you to unleash your power.

- You've been practicing – Leo sheathed one of his katana, and held the other steady in front of him with both hands – Alright! You've earned this.

Focusing his ki, Leo could feel the energy swelled up inside him. That burning flame was just as he remembered when he was under the Tribunal's teaching. Without the amulet, it was definitely weaker, but seeing Usagi's eyes lit up and his ears stood on end with excitement, the leader turtle knew he was being covered by lightning blue stripes. Both contestants took stance, but the samurai attacked first.

Swinging the katana to the side, Usagi let its tip screeched a line on the ground, using the building up momentum to strike even harder. What he didn't expect though, was that at the last minute, the katana in Leo's hands suddenly brightened up. The turtle had channeled his ki into his weapon. Raising the sword above his head, Leo let out a roar as he slashed down on the coming sword. The releasing energy butchered Usagi's katana into pieces, and the air pressure riding after that knocked the rabbit to the other side of the ring. The samurai hit the wall hard on his back, then slumped to the ground. Leo gasped. He didn't plan to use the much force on the attack, but then, he didn't even know his own strength. Rushed to the side of his friend, the turtle saw a line of blood from the corner of Usagi's mouth, and the white fur on his chest had been seared into cinder:

- Usagi! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to…

- That was… - Usagi clenched his jaws - … incredible. You have nothing to apologize for… my friend. The healer will cure me… but I'd like to keep this battle scar… as a memento of our duel.

Leo's blade chose that moment to shatter. The normal metal couldn't withstand all the mystic energy flowed into it. The Gyoji appeared to announce Leo's victory, then transported them both to where the others were. Leo put down his friend for the healer, then turned to his brothers:

- There goes another of my katana. So? How's the investigation go?

- The good news: we're still in one piece – Raph said – The bad news: Mikey and I are next on the plate. The girl didn't pull all her tricks, and I got nowhere near them ta know a thing about the others.

- That's not good – Leo stated the obvious – And we still don't know why they're here to kill us.

- I think there's a bigger scheme here – Don frowned – If they were sent to kill us, they could have done that much easier while we're outside, away from the eye of people. Apparently they are much stronger than they show in the match, so why limit themselves 'on stage'?

- Good question, I think…

They wouldn't know what Leo thought about the matter, for at that moment, the magic screen shone again, and name of the next combatants appeared:

HAMATO RAPHAEL

VS

HYUUGA NEJI

- Oh, shell! – Raph hit his face with his palm.

- Raph – Leo put a hand on his shoulder – Just remember to maintain concentration. Ue! I think we'll need the healer later. Don! You're with me! We need to get to the bottom of this as fast as possible. And Mikey! Stay here and keep an eye on Raph.

They all nodded before Raph was teleported to the ring. Before him was the boy in white. Except for his black hair, he was white to the point it stung the turtle's eyes. Even the boy's eyes were also white. Was he blind?

- I observed the match of that blue clad turtle, your accomplice is… quite peculiar.

Again with the 'accomplice'. Tenten called Don by that, too. What were they? Criminals?

- What's so weird about Leo? And the word is 'brother', not accomplice – Raph growled.

Neji's eyes widened a bit at the information. He shouldn't be that surprise, since there were four of them, and they looked similar to each other. Still, in the dimension where human like he and his team were scarce, it was rare to find a quadruplet of giant, three-fingered, talking turtles. The gong interrupted their unfriendly conversation. Raph drew out his sais and lowered his shoulders, waiting for the attack to come. But Neji calmly glided a foot forward; his toes barely touched the ground. He held up his hands in a relax position, waved for the turtle to strike first. Raph would have charged at him, if it weren't for the boy's eyes that held him in place: veins popped out around them to his temples, like when bodybuilders flex their bodies so hard their veins pop out. Seeing almost every weird things in the world, Raph still flinched a little as the sight of that. Neji smiled at the hesitated turtle:

- Come, Raphael! My mission is to eliminate you. But you and your brothers' power made me want to test my strength against them. This is a tournament after all.

Now that pushed right at the hothead's button. Raph wanted to shot back something, but seeing that he stood no chance as he was now, he closed his eyes and focus. He should consider himself lucky, since the guy who wanted to take his life was being so generous and provide him a fighting chance. Raph used to use his anger as fuel for his strength, but today, he'd make an exception. This was no joke. Like hell he'd let those creeps hurt his family. He couldn't have that. They'd have to walk over his dead body to reach his bros. Feeling the heat poured out of his muscles, Raph opened his eyes to see flaming stripes all over his body. It's faint, but at least he could muster up his mystic power.

Neji patiently waited for his opponent. As much as he wanted to complete his mission, the strange ability of these turtles made both Lee and him excited. They'd have to apologize Gai sensei later, but right now, not enjoy this fight to the fullest would be very disappointed for him. With the Byakugan, Neji already detected Raphael sneaking around and sent Tenten to intercept him, now that the emerald turtle was in front of him, Neji could take a better look inside the body. Ki boiled from his abdomen, flowing out to every inches of his skin. It was just like what happened with Donatello and Leonardo. But seeing that their colors were different, Neji was curious to see Raphael's ability. He crossed their distance in a heartbeat, wiping his arm like a rope, and struck hard on the turtle's neck.

Raph couldn't even see what just happened, let alone react to it. The palm barely grazed his neck, but the impact came after it was like electric shock. It flung the turtle to the side, arms and legs flailing uncontrollably. Raph landed face down, hard.

- What was that? – He rubbed over where the blow bit. There's no bleed, no bruise, but it hurt like a knife was searing his flesh off.

- Juuken – Neji coiled back to his position, waiting for Raph to stand up. His face showed no expression – It focuses on internal injure. You better be careful for my next strike.

Slowly got up to his wobbly feet, Raph focused his ki once more. There's no way these guys could be normal human. Each ones had crazy abilities. But no matter what, as long as he still breathed, he wouldn't let them lay a finger on his bro.

The white-eyes boy could see the ki pouring out from the turtle in front of him. The previous attack was merely for measuring, but apparently it also boosted up something in his opponent. He let Raph took the initial this time as the turtle lunged toward him. Raph thrust both his sai forward, aiming for Neji's chest, but the boy just batted them away to the side. Adding the inertia force Raph gave him, the Konoha ninja sprung both his palms at the plastron, where he thought the lungs were supposed to be. With that, the turtle would cease any hope to breath.

- That… didn't tickle – Raph gritted.

Neji's eyes widened in shock as a sai came for his face. Pushing the turtle away, he flipped backward, adding a kick to Raph's chin before gaining some distance. What was that? The skin of Raphael suddenly felt rock hard, completely different from just a moment ago. Raph smirked:

- So, at least ya can bleed.

True to his words, Raph had given a gash across the boy's cheek. A red line slowly dripped down. But, instead of getting mad, Neji simply smiled:

- I think it's time we skip the playing part – Neji took a deep breath – Let's get serious.

- Took the word right outta my mouth.

They both dashed forward and collided in the middle of the ring. Raph threw a barrage of punches on the ninja, but he either danced out of the way, or even blocked it without batting an eyelid. It's like punching a sheet of cloth. Neji bent most of the blows' trajectory off him, and also countered with some of his own. Air sizzled around them as it got torn apart from their attacks. Raph could hear the audience roar with cheer, but the loudest sound he could make out was the voice of his baby brother in the backstage, encouraging him. It fired him up even more, and he started to push the long haired boy back.

Neji was beginning to sweat. For every four punches Raphael gave him, he could only answer with one. And his strike felt like hitting on solid steel. Was this the ability of Raphael? To harden his skin so he couldn't be penetrated? He still had plenty of chakra left, but his stamina is depleting greatly. Swatted Raph's oncoming assault away, the Konoha ninja stomped one foot to the ground, and spun like a spin top. Raph was about to land another punch when a wave of pressure blew right at the front of his body.

- Hakkeshou Kaiten! – Neji shouted.

Earth skidded under his feet as he was being pushed back. The whole arena stood up at the sight of a bright light semi-sphere engulfed the boy, blowing Raph to his shell. As the ninja stopped, the sphere also vanished, and a circle of rubble was formed at his feet. The turtle sprung right back up only to find his flaming stripes disappeared.

- It seems you've reached your limit – Neji spread his arms wide to the front and back, lowered his supporting leg – As much as I enjoy our duel, I must finish my mission. You are now in my divination.

Before Raph could even react, the boy shouted:

- Juukenhou: Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou!

Faster than an eye could blink, Raph receive two strikes by the ninja's fingertips on his front. Almost simultaneously, another two to his side. Neji continued to spin to his back, adding four strikes to the hard shell, buckling the hothead forward. But before his knees could touch the ground, another set of eight strikes landed on his other side, followed short by another set of sixteen. The last thirty-two didn't spare any space on his front. Neji made sure to cover him from head to toe. Raph fell to his knees as the boy withdrew his hands, coughing out blood. The crowd fell dead silent as the turtle landed his face on the ground, immobile. Neji turned around:

- Mission accomplished!

He spoke too soon.

- Not… yet! – Raph's hand shot up to grab his ankle, his eyes bursting out flame – Ya… ain't touching… my bros…

Neji yanked his foot free, walking backward in shock. Up until now, there're only a few people who can survive this jutsu of his, and they all had monstrous strength. Yet, here he was, in front of a creature that didn't even have chakra, and he's still conscious enough to grab him. Neji's brows furrowed:

- I'm impressed that you lived through my jutsu. I'll put you out of your misery right now.

Right at that moment, the Gyoji appeared to halt him:

- Hyuuga Neji won the match! He will advance to the next round!

With a wave of his fan, the entity sent them back to their respective team. Mikey rushed to Raph's side, finding no apparent injuries, yet his brother didn't respond to his desperate call.

- Raph! Come on, bro! Don't scare me like that! What's wrong with him? – He yelled the healer.

- Your brother is suffering internal damage. – Usagi held him back from attacking the healer – He will be cured, but it will take some time, and it will take even more time if you interrupt our helping hand.

Seeing that the orange clad turtle had relaxed, the rabbit let him go so he could call for his brothers. A few minutes later, Leo and Don rushed back. Don almost collapsed at the sight of Raph. The healer reassured them:

- You and your brother are very lucky to have such natural armor – he tapped on the plastron – Be it pure flesh, he will surely perish after that finishing move.

- I heard it from Mikey, but I thought he just exaggerated – Don bit his lips.

- Hey! Raph almost died out there! – The said turtle shouted – Who do you think I am to make a joke out of that?

- Mikey! Calm down! – Leo pushed him back – I know you're worried about Raph, but panic right now won't help. You're the last along with either that old guy, or the younger one in green. Stay focus! I don't want to look at your dead body.

Mikey clenched his teeth and wiped the tear. He could hardly control his sobering, how could he focus like this? But Leo's right. Raph's still alive, the least he could do was to follow the hothead's example. He didn't need to win this tournament. Not anymore. He just needed to survive through it along with his brother… No, no one could mess with his brothers and got away with it. He'd make them pay…

The screen shone once more, drawing their attention:

HAMATO MICHELANGELO

VS

ROCK LEE

Walking past everyone, Mikey gave them a thumb-up over his shoulder:

- Don't worry Leo. I'm going to win this…